Saturday, April 1, 2017

Fools' Day

A few of us were rehearsed through the program, and when the
leader departed for another place I ran through the routine with the dance and
sung phrases and got stuck in so many places.
I had not mastered the material. The leader came back with a knowing
look in her eyes and ran each of us through the routine, individually. I was in the middle of the lineup and
performed worse than I expected.

My former partner came close to me and told me to hug her before
she departed.I stood behind her and wrapped
my right arm around her body while my left arm was entangled in a cord. She weightlessly stayed with me, and when I
needed to use my right arm I kept it around her, refusing to let her go, while
I received surprised looks from the group.

“Can I call you at this number?” she asked, and she showed
me the 5xx-5xx-xxx9 number, I looked at the black rotary phone near the table
and saw it had the same number so I agreed, then I released her and she
dissolved, smiling as she disappeared.

The older one came in and said she had to tell me something.We stood, forehead to forehead and she
intuited, without words, that she was ejected from the place.I was shocked.“Who forbade you to enter?” She uttered a
highly unlikely name, or I could have mis-heard it. She blustered with her egoistic flair as she
began to depart, and I was shocked and sad to see her go.Regardless of her behavior, I felt that her departure signaled the demise of the place.I hung my head as I joined another iteration of the routine, and although my
mind was elsewhere, I performed without a hitch.

As the group left the room I picked up dirty clothes left behind by the two who departed. I bid them good riddance as I resented picking up after them again. This would be the last bittersweet favor for them.